COMMUNITY PROFILE:
This district serves the communities of Cumberland, Falmouth, Gray, Long Island (partially), North Yarmouth and Yarmouth (partially).
There are 31,937 actively registered voters within this district:
CURRENT REPRESENTATIVE:
Teresa Pierce, a Democrat from Falmouth. Sen. Pierce is the Senate Majority Leader and has served in the state legislature since being elected in November 2014; she served in the House from 2015-2020.
Sen. Pierce has served for six years as a Falmouth Town Councilor, including two as chair. Outside of her work as an elected official, Sen. Pierce has worked in the development field at the University of New England and other non-profit organizations for the past 20 years.
Sen. Pierce serves on the education and cultural affairs committee, on the transportation committee, on the joint rules committee, as chairwoman of the Senate rules committee and as chairwoman of the Senatorial vote committee.
The education and cultural affairs committee covers the Department of Education; State Board of Education; school finance, governance and administration; school budgets; school facilities; curriculum, instruction and assessment; teachers and administrators; special education and child development services; education of deaf and hard-of-hearing students; career and technical education; charter schools, alternative education, school choice and home schooling; school district reorganization; online learning; student health, nutrition and safety; truancy and dropouts; educational services at juvenile correctional facilities; adult education; Maine Education Policy Research Institute; University of Maine System; Maine Community College System; Maine Maritime Academy; postsecondary education finance and governance; Maine State Library; student assistance programs at Finance Authority of Maine (FAME); and cultural affairs, including Maine Arts Commission, Maine State Museum, Maine Historical Society, Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Maine Humanities Council and Maine Public, formerly known as Maine Public Broadcasting.
The joint rules committee is responsible for reviewing and recommending changes that the committee determines necessary to the Legislature’s Joint Rules. Joint Rules are adopted pursuant to the Constitution of Maine to assist in carrying out the responsibilities of the Legislature.
The Senate rules committee is similar to Joint Rules, except that it only deals with rules related to the senate. This committee is created by the President of the Senate.
The Senatorial vote committee is created by a Senate Order on the first day of session. It states, that a committee of seven be appointed by the President to which the returns of votes for senators for the political years of 2025 and 2026 shall be referred for examination and report. This committee deals with matters relating to any senate elections.
The transportation committee covers the Department of Transportation; Bureau of Motor Vehicles; motor vehicle registration and license plates; drivers’ licenses; driver education; Maine Turnpike Authority; Highway Fund; transportation policy; public transportation; aeronautics; highway and bridge construction and maintenance; highway safety; traffic regulation; waterways; railroads; Department of Public Safety, State Police; and motor vehicles and motor carriers.
Sen. Pierce is a member of the legislative council, which is the administrative body for the legislative branch. The council is responsible for the overall management of the entire Legislature. The council is responsible for providing professional, nonpartisan staff support services to the Legislature and its officers, members, committees and commissions. These services include legislative research, bill drafting; policy, legal and fiscal analysis; fiscal note preparation; committee staffing; computer support services; public information; library and reference services and support; and general administrative services. The Legislative Council’s staff is organized into the nonpartisan offices that operate under the direction of the council’s executive director. Other responsibilities delegated by the legislature to the council include preparing legislative budget requests and overseeing the legislative budget; establishing salary and benefit schedules for all legislative employees, except as otherwise provided by law; approval of employment practices; planning and oversight of projects designed to improve the organization, operation and physical facilities of the legislature; and assignment of work to legislative committees when the legislature is not in session. The council also has responsibility for screening and approving requests to introduce legislation after cloture (after deadline bills) in any legislative session and exercises this same role for all bill requests prior to their introduction in the second regular session and all special sessions.
Information for this lawmaker’s biography has been compiled from numerous public sources, including pages maintained by political parties, individual lawmakers and the Maine Legislature.
Contact this lawmaker: teresa.pierce@legislature.maine.gov or 207-415-8631
ELECTIONS 2024:
This seat was on the ballot during the 2024 election cycle. Running for the seat were Teresa Pierce (D) and James Read (R).
View contributions to each candidate, campaign expenditures and campaign filings on the Maine Ethics Commission website.
LEGISLATIVE WORK:
The following chart is a compilation of legislation sponsored by Sen. Pierce during the 132nd Legislature. To learn more about each legislation and see where it is in the legislative process, click on the bill ID in the first column. View each vote cast by Sen. Pierce.
For those viewing this page on mobile, you can view more columns by scrolling left-to-right through the embedded table. That same material is available by clicking the Bill ID.
AI Disclosure: The bill summaries appearing below have been generated by Claude Haiku, an Artificial Intelligence model from Anthropic, which describes itself as an AI safety and research company. BillTrack50, which has compiled the summaries, has extensively tested the accuracy of the information but does not guarantee that every summary is completely accurate and comprehensive. You should always read and rely on the bill text that is provided by the Maine Legislature, which is accessible by clicking on the Bill ID in the table. (A button to flag AI-generated errors to the BillTrack50 team is available on each bill page.) We encourage readers to view our ethics policy, which includes our policy on the newsroom’s use of AI.
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